


Hiccups and Somersaults

by takemeawaytocamelot



Category: Outlander (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 12:21:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takemeawaytocamelot/pseuds/takemeawaytocamelot
Summary: Jamie and Claire have an intimate moment together during their time in France.





	Hiccups and Somersaults

**Author's Note:**

  * For [minandmic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minandmic/gifts).



Claire lay drowsily on the couch, facing the fireplace. Jamie sat hunched over the desk, trying to copy and decipher the latest batch of stolen correspondence. She should probably be resting in their bed upstairs, but she’d insisted on staying with him until he finished.

“Oh!” she said suddenly, her words sharp. “Oh God!”

Before he’d made a conscious decision to move, he was kneeling at her side, papers still fluttering to the floor in his wake.

“Claire!” he said, holding her face between his hands. “Are ye alright? Has somethin’ happened? Is it the bairn? Should I send for Murtagh? Suzette? Do ye need-”

“Jamie!” she said through a laugh. “I’m just fine.  _ We _ are alright.”

Forcing himself to relax a little, he nodded.

“I heard ye cry out and worried…”

“It wasn’t anything bad. Our wee Fraser is just a little more active than I was expecting.”

His heart stuttered as his eyes moved down to her belly.

“Active?”

“Would you like to feel your child?”

Without waiting for an answer, she took his hand and moved it over her stomach. At first, he didn’t feel anything. He glanced up at Claire, who smiled at him. Then it happened. It wasn’t much, a slight nudge, but it was there.

“Christ,” he breathed.

“Oh just wait. I think he was doing somersaults a moment ago.”

“I dinna ken what that is, but it sounds uncomfortable.”

Claire laughed.

“Strange,” she agreed. “It feels very strange. But good.”

Jamie stared at his hand as the bairn continued moving around. Claire giggled and he frowned up at her.

“What?”

“I think the baby’s gotten the hiccups.”

“He can do that?”

Claire nodded and her belly vibrated slightly again.

“God,” Jamie whispered. “He’s really a person…”

“Yes he,  _ or she _ , is. Our very own miracle.”

The way he was stroking her belly, almost reverently, had her distracted. Every time he reached up to the top of her belly, he would brush against her breast, sending little shivers all over her body.

“Aye,” he said softly, aware of her eyes on him.

Feeling, and  _ seeing _ , this child move -  _ his _ child - gave him such joy he could not express. He’d been too afraid to hope for a child, with the price on his head and Black Jack hunting him. Then Claire had told him she was barren and he’d been strong for her, reassuring her that everything would be alright. But this secret hope still lingered.

“What are you thinking?” Claire asked, reaching out to run her fingers through his hair.

“How beautiful ye are, swollen wi’ child.”

She snorted and struggled to sit up. He stood and helped her, his hand holding hers. Unable to resist, he traced the lines of her lips with a finger, surprised - and  _ quite _ aroused - when she bit down. 

“Are you done with your letters?” she asked, her voice deep and sultry.

He eyed her with suspicion as she stared up through her lashes at him.

“No’ yet. I must finish them tonight so Fergus can return them.”

“You’ve been looking over those for hours.”

“Aye…”

She bit her lower lip and tried to hide a smile. With one finger, she began playing with the ribbon of her shift.

“Perhaps it’s time you take a break. Sometimes stepping away can help your brain sort through things and give you a solution.”

“Oh,” he said, smiling. “Is that so?”

“Mm,” she nodded. “Scientific fact.”

Jamie glanced behind him at the papers strewn on the floor. In his haste to reach her, he’d knocked over the chair as well, though he didn’t remember hearing the crash. He really did need to finish reading through them and making copies. Fergus would take the originals early in the morning and return them to the courier’s bag before they were missed. But…

“Aye,” he said slowly. “Perhaps a break would do me good. Shall I take ye upstairs for a quick nap, then?”

She opened her mouth to agree until she’d heard his last words. Then she snapped her mouth shut and glared at him.

“Not unless you intend to make love to me first.”

“Make love to ye? Surely you’re tired, Sassenach. And I dinna think the bairn would like to be jostled about, aye?”

Her glare deepened and she lumbered off the couch. She stepped closer to him, her hand running down his chest. When she reached down between his legs he grunted.

“Well I’m certainly not tired and clearly you aren’t either.”

Slowly, she began rubbing her hand against him and he lost the ability to think or breathe for a moment.

“Christ, Sassenach! What about the bairn?”

“What about him?”

His own hand was beginning to drift over her body, feeling her soft curves beneath her shift.

“I dinna expect he’d enjoy being jostled about, aye?”

“You already said that. But… How about,” she said, unbuttoning his waistcoat. “You let me worry about the baby.”

She helped him out of his waistcoat and tossed it behind them. Pulling herself closer, the bulge of the bairn pressed between them. It moved, allowing both Jamie and Claire to feel it.

His mind was split between the enticing sight of his wife undressing him and feeling their bairn move swiftly against his own skin. 

Claire regained his full attention as she ran her hands under his shirt and pulled it up over his head, leaning forward to nip gently on his chest, just over his heart. The bite was only hard enough to leave a wee bruise. 

“Ahh,” Jamie hissed, feeling her teeth bite just a bit harder before pulling her bodily even closer to him. “Ye wee  _ vixen _ ,” he muttered against her mouth as she smiled coyly.

“I believe you once told me ‘if you bed a vixen you should expect to get bit.’”

“Aye, aye, I do believe I did say that once. And it was as true that day as it is now.”

He smiled down at her, absorbing the look in her eyes, eyes that were full of hunger, and leaned down to nip at her lips. After a few minutes of fevered kissing, hands running wildly over each other’s flesh,  Jamie pulled back.

“So,” he said a little breathlessly. “Shall I take ye upstairs and take ye to bed? Or shall I service ye here, where Murtagh or one of the servants might find us?”

Claire shuddered and he knew what her answer would be. She turned her back to him and walked toward the couch, dropping her shift as she did. He shed his own garments as quickly as he could, kicking off his shoes and nearly falling over in his stockings. 

Standing at the arm of the couch, she glanced over her shoulder at him and bent at the waist. Both of his hands ran over her rump, sliding up her back before making the circuit again.

“Ye have the most perfect arse,” he said, giving it a squeeze. “And skin soft as silk.”

Her hips swayed back and forth, teasing him. Holding her carefully, he slid home with a satisfied grunt. Then he began rocking against her, enjoying the feel of her around him and the quiet sounds she made.

Claire began pushing back against him, driving him harder than he meant. Using his grip on her hips, he slowed her down.

“What are you doing?” she asked with a slight growl.

“I dinna want to hurt the bairn. I dinna want to be too… rough, wi’ him inside ye.”

“What did I tell you before?” she asked. “Let  _ me _ worry about the baby.”

Jamie hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“But…”

“Oh for Christ’s sake!” She stood up and forced him to take a step back and pointed to the couch. “Sit.”

Obediently, he plopped himself down, a little confused. She straddled him and looked him in the eye.

“You’re not going to hurt us,” she said. 

With her hands on the back of the couch, she took him in and began moving. He kissed her then, absorbing her moans. One of his hands came up and cupped her full breast, pleased with the warm weight of it. When she released his mouth, he kissed his way down her neck before reaching his target. Her skin always tasted sweet to him and he could never taste it enough.

His tongue found its way to the tip of one breast, where he teased and tantalized her sensitive flesh. She whimpered quietly, still moving her hips as best she could. Using the one hand that wasn’t grabbing Claire’s arse, he lifted her breast up to his mouth. He wanted to hear that squeak he loved, the one she insisted she  _ didn’t _ make. Nibbling at her breast, he smiled as he got the sound he’d been waiting for.

_ “Jamie…” _ she panted, her skin slapping against his.

Then she was shuddering around him, fingers digging into his scalp and his shoulder. He released his hold on her breast as he came to the end of himself. They sat for a few minutes, both heaving and trying to calm down.

“See?” Claire said in a satisfied voice. “The baby is just fine.”

Jamie’s hands moved from her buttocks to her belly, eager to feel his child once more. There! He felt it, almost as though the bairn felt him and moved away. Claire’s whisky eyes were slowly closing and Jamie smiled.

After shrugging into his shirt and some careful maneuvering, Jamie carried his sleeping wife upstairs and tucked her into their bed. For a long moment, he just watched her sleep.

“God,” he prayed in Gaelic. “Protect my beloved, and the child she carries. In this day, and every day. In this place, and every place.”

Claire stirred and blinked drowsily up at him.

“Are you coming to bed?”

“Aye, in a moment. I need to clear up the papers I scattered and then I’ll come join ye.”

The smile she gave him was small but it pierced him through the heart. She was his everything. He could not, and would not, survive without her.

“Hurry back, soldier.”

Jamie leaned down and kissed her forehead before heading back to his desk.


End file.
